Tales of the Multiverse

People have thought many things of dreams. They have thought them prophecies, messages from the gods, or boringly thought dreams were their unconscious mind working things out. These are all right, but only in part. Dreams are so much more than that. People have thought many things of death. They have thought it an end, a beginning, one step in a continuing journey. These are all right, but only in part. Death is so much more than that. What people don’t understand is that dreaming and dying are the same thing; the only difference is that you come back from dreaming. When you die, when you dream, you enter the Other. The Other is a place where anything is possible, yet few things happen there of true importance. This is a story of when the course of history flowed through the Other. We begin with the first known act of aggression among those of the Other. The being known as Proll was floating in his domain of endless prairies stretching out as far as he could imagine. The...

Most people would describe me as an oversleeper, a drop out, or a slacker. They would of course be perfectly correct in their description but that is only half the truth. Those who know of the other half of my life - which this tale tells of - have described me as royalty, a great warrior, and a just ruler. Most have called me Andy Smith or Andy for short. No one knows me as Mr. Smith. No one has ever thought me deserving of the title of Mr. Those few who describe me as royalty call me His Highness Sir Anthony the Great, the Bringer of Light and Death, and the First King of the Other. It’s a long title, I know. The full title is used only on formal occasions which I do my best to avoid. I am generally called either Your Highness or Sir Anthony. Those rare few whom I consider friends call me simply Anthony. But I seem to be getting ahead of myself. To tell this tale out of order would be far too confusing for even the nimblest of minds to follow. It is confusing enough told in as l...

The ships will first be noticed only a few days before they arrive. The astronomers that will discover them will think they are just an undiscovered group of comets - at least at first. When they start to change their trajectories the astronomers will begin to realize they aren’t comets. By then it will be too late to do much of anything. The next day, the ships will have arrived. Ships as large as cities. Ships nearly identical to each other as if made on the same assembly line. There will be over a hundred ships that come. The ships won’t float over our cities or our military bases or our nuclear facilities. They will form a grid over our planet, spread from pole to pole. The ships will float above oceans, mountains, deserts, and forests. Only a few of them will be over populated areas more by happenstance than planning.  The great superpowers of the world won’t know how to react. They all will hold off on any military options. Most countries will attempt to make contact, ea...

The unnamed moon wasn’t really discovered, it was given a number and catalogued. The moon orbited a gas giant with a similar number in the same catalogue. The unnamed and numbered star the planet orbited was of course plotted long ago. The orbits of the planet and the moon were first plotted by an unmanned probe. The probe concluded - incorrectly - that there was nothing of note in the system. The system was left lonely for several centuries after the probe left.  It wasn’t until a lone starship with engine troubles stopped in the system for maintenance. The ship’s troubles were common and uninteresting. The ship itself was an ordinary transport ship. While the engineering crew fixed the ship a few of the crew landed on the moon for some “fresh air” in their space suits. The three of them explored the moon and found a cave to explore. The cave itself was as uninteresting as the moon, the planet, and the star. It was what they found deep within the cave that was truly discovere...

The Holy Galactic Empire Episode 03 - Saint Louis Station "Ma'am, request from Fleet HQ." "Yes?" Captain Brisbin said. She turned her head towards the young ensign. Ensign Keller was fresh out of the academy on his first tour as an officer of the Twins Ducal Navy. The captain thought him a promising new officer, but he had been as nervous as a mouse around her from day one. She noticed that even now, the ensign was tapping one of his toes slightly as he stood at attention. Alison was quite certain the ensign's unease stemmed more from her being Countess  Brisbin than Captain Brisbin. While her naval chain of command was the same as every other ship captain in the Twins Ducal Navy - up through local admirals through the Admiralty HQ and then eventually to the Duke, her oaths of fealty were sworn directly to the Duke. At the time she had first sworn them independently she had been the youngest noble to ever swear independently to any Duke of Twins. T...

The Holy Galactic Empire Season 00 - A Feudal War Episode 00 - Retired Honor Episode 01 - Without Warning Episode 02 - Planning Session Episode 03 - Saint Louis Station Episode 04 - Rendezvous for Interrogation Episode 05 - Priesthood

The Holy Galactic Empire Episode 02 - Planning Session "What the hell is going on?" Sandar repeated.  "I want you to look at this and tell me what you think," Jason said as he pulled a screen out of his pocket. He unlocked it and slid it across the bar towards Sandar. Sandar glanced down at the tablet and saw detailed maps showing patrol patterns. He looked quickly back up at the young lord. "Telling me vague descriptions of events which will soon become present knowledge is one thing; that looks like highly classified military data. If you'll recall, I no longer have a clearance." "On this, I am acting with my father's full authority," Jason said, "As such I can share the duchy's classified information at my discretion." Sandar stared at Jason for a long moment before grabbing the screen of the table and beginning to study the data. It showed the times and locations of the attacks as well as the patrol routes f...